Is it me or do the asking prices on private party cars seem a lot higher than their Edmunds or KBB values? I realize Edmunds tends to be a tad lower than KBB. Any experience with this? I realize these cars were quite expensive when new, but are their owners in denial about how much they depreciate? Do most sellers build in a large cushion to negotiate?

As a private seller I take into consideration that I am not a bank. Dealers can get away with selling the car at a lower price, especially if the customer will finance the car. There are plenty of people that will finance a $5000 car (for whatever reason that may be), but the dealer can still make a profit. Dealers always price their cars to make a profit. Always.

When you have a car in the price range 15k and above, there is a slightly smaller market of cash buyers. Think about it, as a private seller, I don't do payment plans or partial pays. I want all the money up front. And, private sellers have always been known to undervalue their cars anyway. Most dealers will always resell a car at least 1-2k above what they paid for it as a trade in.

Most dealer prices tend to be at least 1k above KBB, depending on the car and mileage. Lower mileage cars are much more financiable and push the price of the car up significantly. The trick with selling private is hanging in as long as you can and putting in the "nego", or "obo" in the ad. If I can sell it for 1k less and it won't hurt me financially then so be it. I can't get what I paid for it, but if I don't owe anything on it...

Back in 1997, I tried to sell a 94 base model 850 5 spd with 36000 miles. It was in showroom condition or near so. I had it priced at 19000 at that time. I took it to a dealer who would only give $15000 for it. I ran an ad for 6 months. No takers. Everyone wants to take it for nothing. Fortunately, I had staying power with the vehicle. One day on the job, I ran into a lady that said her husband was in need of a new car. I did the sell job of a life and sold it to them for $19000 after a total of 9 months of effort.

Problem is, is that with new car dealers having an inventory of used cars that come with a warranty, the private seller is then at a disadvantage.

My only experience was when I was shopping around at 6 different new car dealers (to trade in my 1 year old vehicle), I found that I was offered, within $100.00, of the KBB wholesale price (trade in price) for my vehicle at every dealer.

I too have found the "private party" value to be too high for actual market conditions.
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You will never leave where you are until you decide where you would rather be.

I look at trade in as instant service worth a certain dollar amount,
I sold a used car and had the guy real hassel me after the sale
plus it took several weeks to only make about 800 more for the car
than the trade,

"Market conditions" is the operative phrase here. I gave up trying to sell my 95 855t as I just wasn't going to let it go for what they're selling for these days.

I bought it in Jan '01 and paid within $300 of the kbb price. Over 10k. I listed it for sale last February near the kbb.com's "private party" value hoping it's condition and maintenance records would work toward reaching close to what I was asking. I had no callers for over 3 months even though I was dropping the price over $200 every two weeks.

Finally, I let the ad expire and decided to keep it when my asking price fell to just under $7000 and still no calls. The kick in the gut came every Sunday when looking at similar 850s in the classifieds. Prices have fallen below $6,000 for '96 models, even lower for '95s.

In addition to what I consider to be this model's appalling rate of depreciation, post September 11th 0% interest rate offers from dealers on new vehicles and a glut of lease returns has gutted the used car market.

Plugging in the numbers at kbb.com I come up with $8,500 as my "private party" price. In today's market they can be had in the $5,000 range, making kbb irrelevant.

YMMV,
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Erwin in Memphis, '88 745t 190,000 miles, '95 855t 92,000 miles

In my paper there are four 95s priced from $7k to $10k. According to my research they should be priced from $5 to $6k.

Dealer or private? Maybe I should take it to Seattle and sell? Here in Memphis, the dealers are listing them low, like a '96 turbo sedan, 90k etc, for around $6000. With issues? Maybe, I've never gone and looked. Private party sales do tend to list higher but I don't know how successful they are in moving them.
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Erwin in Memphis, '88 745t 190,000 miles, '95 855t 92,000 miles

I'm looking at a 96 850 wagon that is absolutely perfect with equally perfect maintance records. The guy will take $6500. for it. I looked around online for 850 wagons within 100 miles of me for curiosity to see what the going rate was. Seems to be about $8-9K for private owners and my handy dandy local Volvo dealer has a 96 wagon identical to the one I'm looking at for, take a guess... $12,500.

bl